Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities The All Avengers Thread

I don't buy the Avengers books, but sneak a peak at my friend's when I'm round. So, it does lead to a few gaps in knowing what's going on.

However, I've always enjoyed the scope of Hickman's plots. They are huge cosmic things and here he has a cast that matches.

An issue has been that characters generally get lost in such plots. But the illuminati seem a good match as most of them are generally a bit aloof & remote anyway to me.

I can't deal with Hickman's FF, Fantastic Four or Avengers but his Image stuff is pretty cool!

I will never forgive Morrison for putting a gun in Professor Xavier's hand. Or ... you know ... resurrecting Jean Grey like three times.

btw what the frack is the deal with this??? There is just a huge discrepancy in pacing! East of West is paced perfectly and very cleverly.

I may eventually try East of West....in trades. Much of what I've seen written about it recommends that approach.

Lardy, it looks to me like we're generally of like minds on both those writers, but did you miss my rave review of Morrison's Flex Mentallo in the Random Review Corner thread? It was one of the first things I posted when I came back to Legion World this year. FM is the one time I've LOVED something that Morrison wrote.

Never read Flex Mentallo. I remember intending to pick it up as a fan of his DP, but I don't believe my CBS at the time carried it. He does some of his best work with Quitely--like All-Star Superman, which I forgot to list. I'm not as in love with All-Star as some people are, but it was definitely a good-to-great comic.

It is just getting started (issue 6) BUT unlike the Marvel books It will build and build but ...

Its not like the crazy intense tension of Morning Glories or Mind the Gap ... it is a different atmosphere.



I'm not sure if you will like it more or less than Manhattan Projects ... it is a bit derivative of Preacher ... somehow ... I don't know if that is good or bad.

Flex was collected in hardcover about a year ago, and I believe it's still in print. I agree that Quitely brings out the best in him...and, once again, we're of like minds on All Star Superman. I liked it but didn't love it.

I thought All Star could be a bit shorter but that still wouldn't make me love it. GREAT costume designs though!

I may have to browse this Flex . . .

Yay Peebs! Can't wait to find out what you think of it.

decent point about the pay off for Hickman. I think it applies or certainly applied to Morrison as well.

Knowing that, Morrison's writing is still solid enough that I'm not likely to find a book that I won't read (although bits of the Invisibles and the Filth came close).

Likewise, I'd probably read a Hickman book for the next large scale idea culled from an issue of New Scientist.

I read Flex Mentallo at the time and it was fine. Not jaw dropping, but fine. I did like All-Star Superman, but partly because it was such a nice diversion from the character in the main books. It had a very Legion-like optimism my memory tells me.

I think Morrison is one of those writers who can't keep their personal life from affecting their work. His X-Men lost direction quickly due to rotten working conditions and other problems in Morrison's personal life. I suspect that the circumstances under which his Action Comics run was written were also less than ideal, even though he was supposedly exempt from the treatment received by other DCFU writers...guess he wasn't, because, like X-Men, it started off with promise but then went terribly wrong.

Morrison, by his own admission, is already moving onto the next thing that captures his interest, while the one he's on is winding down.

It's been like that all the way back to Zenith. Reaction to the work, editorial edicts etc will no doubt add to that, as they do nearly everyone else.

But I'd take a Zenith or a Doom Patrol or a WE3 (sniffs just typing it) over the output of many others.

Mighty Avengers 002 is the best Avengers comic I have read in years. (might not be saying much but)

Very exciting stuff!

I love the characterization of the team and the Blue Marvel.

It was too short by any standard though.

I just hope that

I've been meaning to check this out to see if Monica is back to her original powers (turn into any form of EM radiation, shoot force blasts) or has the arbitrary 'do-anything energy related' powers she had in Nextwave.

It seems she is back to her original powers of being able to turn into electricity, light and radiation. She made a statement of how she can turn into all sorts of energy. For the record.

She zips around at yellow light speed and generates energy blasts.


I am afraid that may change though.
(see above spoiler)

She changed her name to Spectrum though. <which I like better than Photon> And she has a new costume that looks a whole lot like her Captain Marvel suit! much better than the trench coat.

It has been really exciting so far! The rag tag team ... face ... Thanos!!! haha!


... more or less ...

Good to hear. I love me some Nextwave, but the writer Did Not Do The Research (tm) and had her doing all sorts of crazy stuff, like creating massive energy blasts of this radiation or that, or 'microwave storms' or threatening to irradiate an entire ship full of enemies by touching the hull, most of which I prefer to think of as over-the-top creative license, like Machine Man having a giant pair of scissors in his chest, or a device that lets him impregnate someone from thirty feet away.

I kind of liked the trenchcoat, 'though.

Not a fan of the Blue Marvel. The Marvel universe is amazing, with a crazy diversity and nearly endless set of potential origins and options for character design. The last thing I think Marvel needs is yet another Superman ripoff, like the Sentry. (Or, in this case, perhaps an Icon ripoff?)

It's not like they couldn't have drug Phastos or Genii or Splice out of mothballs if they wanted some more heroes of color on the team.

Phastos would make a great addition!!!!

This team needs a smart guy and he is not so far above Monica or Luke's power level ... well he dosn't seem so ... even if he might be.

and he hasn't got as much air play as some of the other Eternals.

I don't like the new Spidey as the smart guy. (I don't really like Spideys)

.. except Jessica and or Julia Carpenter.

In whatever book Monica ended up in after the initiative, there was a scene where I'm sure she admitted to animal cruelty as a youngster. I have wanted her demise ever since.

Possibly my memory of it, as looking back it seems like a very pointless way to get your readers to hate someone, in the name of characterisation.

I think I will file that under selective memory.

Some writers and people think that trauma and/or a dark past make a personality.

I don't agree.

What is she supposed to be a serial killer in a spandex outfit with light powers?

Especially since ... everything else I have ever read about Monica has been that she is super nice and honorable ... remember how upset she was when Moonstone broke her neck, accidently I might add, during their fight!

She visited her in the hospital!

and Moonstone sucks! Moonstone was part of the team that put Hercules in a coma, beat poor Jarvis ... maiming him, and locked Monica herself in a dark dimension indefinitely!!!

I know, I know... it's totally out of character. I will now need to go on a quest for the issue.

It's a flash of memory form years ago, so it will be interesting to see who I should really hold a grudge against, assuming I'm not entirely making it up.

Well it turns out itwas Monica. It's in Nextwave 1. As a child she immolates/microwaves a yappy dog with her powers.

A throw away moment from Warren Ellis, that's supposed to be darkly funny. But it's the only issue I picked up of the run, and sunk the character for me.